Code

Being able to write code is something that I believe will be a vital skill for us in the future, particularly for our children's generation. Many schools internationally are already including this in their curriculum for all children--four and up, but did you know that 90% of the children in the United States are not learning any? Might be time to add to the curriculum again, or in after school programs, where available.

You might have seen this floating around recently:

I thought it would be interesting to learn a new skill myself so I signed up at Code Academy and chose the language I wanted to learn, Java, and started. It has been a fun and addicting project. I'm currently only 20% done but I do a little each day.You also earn little badges as you hit certain points, and they are, interestingly enough, exciting to get.

Here's a screen shot of one I got:

I plan on learning as many languages as I can, why not? It's free! Have you learned to code?

Summer Time

The kiddos are out of school and they need to be entertained lest they start to argue among themselves like they did last year. So I devised a plan. In May I printed out blank calender sheets for June, July, and August then I filled in every square Monday through Saturday with activities. Some are simple short ones, like garden, movie, or picnic. Others take more planning, for example, research a country and camping. We've gone to the library made play dough and gone hiking. I love that we have a plan for everyday and so do the girls. With a generous amount of activities that we don't usually do or haven't ever done we are having a blast this summer!